The large numbers of wireless public hotspots at coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, airports and other locations offering wireless connectivity have provided traveling workers and others convenient options for connecting to the Internet or the corporate network. Unfortunately, public hotspots often present security risks for users or clients.
For example, an “Evil Twin” attack can occur when a hacker impersonates a legitimate, commercial hotspot and an unsuspecting user connects to the “Evil Twin” wireless access point (AP). The Evil Twin hotspot may look identical to a legitimate public network AP that a user may log in to every day. For example, a soft AP may be created on a laptop. The soft AP may broadcast a service set identifier (SSID) that lets other wireless devices know that the AP is available. The hacker can even give the AP a legitimate name that indicates service from a common or well known wireless service provider. This may even cause a wireless device or client to automatically connect to the AP. Once a user has connected to the AP, the hacker may present fake sign-in pages, fake credit card payment pages, etc., that lure the unsuspecting user to input confidential information, such as credit card numbers, user names and passwords, and the like.
A number of solutions have been proposed to improve wireless security. These usually involve use of encryption between client and AP, and/or an AP authenticating the wireless client, or use of an authentication server. For example, merely authenticating a client does not protect the client from an Evil Twin situation. Likewise, use of an authentication server to authenticate a client does not protect the client, and requires the client to communicate directly through the AP. Thus, it may be desirable to provide improved techniques to protect wireless clients from fraudulent APs or Evil Twin type of situations where a hacker may be impersonating a legitimate wireless AP/hotspot.